Posted on October 6th, 2008 by James
This weekend Izzy was going crazy in the backyard with her “I’m chasing something or digging or doing something I am not supposed to be doing” type bark. It is a cute little bark though. More high-pictched… not the low “Imma whoop some ass” type she uses when someone is walking by or mowing or doing whatever. Anyhow, I sneaked to the backdoor and was watching and she ran back and forth in the yard looking straight up. It took me a minute to find out what was going on, but once I did - I realized we had a certified squirrel hunter on our hands.
There were a few squirrels running back and forth on the power lines and Izzy was doing her best to keep up with them. She would eventually tire out and decide to watch them for a while from the most comfortable place in the backyard…
We love that big ass ghost dog. Really we do.
Posted on October 2nd, 2008 by James
Thats how we live these days.
Trying to put everything together for the next two months is where we are breaking down at the moment. We are SUPER over-booked at the moment. Never did we think we would be selling one house, moving into another, going on a cruise, flying to New Orleans to train a huge customer at my work, flying in for a big game in DFW, remodelling a few things at the new house, celebrating Thanksgiving and my birthday even before that (next week actually)… in a 2 month timeframe. Oh and just working in between it all, packing in between all that.
No biggie right? Life isn’t fair. Life isn’t easy. Life is exciting and wonderous at times. This is one of those times.
Where’s The Tape & That Lovely Smell Of Cardboard.
Moving sucks. Like Hoover-style. It is probably one of our most hated things. Apartments made us hate it so bad, I’m sure of it. What sucks even more is we pulled all our cards last move, since we didn’t expect to have to move for a while. So this one we will be trying to do mostly on our own, minus the big stuff. Did we mention we acquired a piano since the last time? Yeah. So even more fun. We are running out of friends. haha Anyone hanging out in the Midland area that would love to move a piano… say… around the end of November?!? Want to be our friends? We love you. We know we would. Seriously. Let’s be friends.
Time Is Money - We Are Broke.
So we close on our new house and we will have about 2 & a half weeks to get the new house the way we want it before we will move in. The problem is, we already booked a flight to go see a football game with friends & family and its one of those things that pretty much as been hyped up for so long… it has to be done. I know, stupid… still… shut up. So one weekend is gone. I think we can get the walls textured & painted during the weekdays after work (and late into the night), but one weekend will have to be spent putting up a new fence. So that leaves the last weekend of November for moving. Fun. Did we mention we need more friends? Know how to texture? Dig post holes? We love you. We want to be your friend. Seriously. Let’s hang out. We will supply the beers.
Cruising Through Life, One Island At A Time.
When we booked this cruise it was a great idea at a great time. Now it seems as if it landed in the middle of a shit storm. We can’t decide if it has come at the perfect time, or at the worst time… but regardless, its coming. We need it… it might not be the best timing in the world… but we do need it. Bad. So the 19th of this month we will fly to Ft. Lauderdale and stay at Tropic Rock for a night before heading to the Port of Miami to leave for our cruise. We are doing Carnival… because we like to party? or something. We will visit the Bahamas (couple stops) and Turks & Caicos. This is our first cruise so we could LOVE it… or we could possible throw up the whole time. Who knows. Who cares. Rather throw up in paradise… then not throw up at home. Does that make sense? Probably not.
Living To Work At The Moment. We Know It Is Backwards.
I know the saying that you shouldn’t live to work, but work to live… but sometimes it gets your ass, and you don’t have a choice. This is one of those times where it doesn’t matter, you just gotta get it done. At my work we have been working to get our newest and biggest customer live. This means setting up over 40 computers, their live & offline versions of their websites and also to cap it all off it will mean flying to New Orleans and training them on the system. Did I mention it is next week? Yeah. So throw that right in the middle of everything else. We didn’t have enough going on… might as well put a cherry on top. Actually this would be more like one of the bananas on the bottom… since we have the caramel, choco syrup and nuts still to go. The cherry might be Christmas. **face palm**
Happy Birthday To Me… Happy Birthday To Me.
That was me singing. I think. I turn 29 in about a week. Fun fun. Right in the middle of everything else. Thank God it isn’t thirty or something. It is on a Friday too. Freakin’ Friday birthday. Can we say… DRUNK? Yup. I can. I haven’t had a birthday during the weekend in a LOOOOOOOONG time… it should be cool. Hope so. Yeah right, I will probably be asleep at 10:30 after watching the weather channel for an hour. I will be in New Orleans 2 days before my birthday… celebrating early with my boss a little. Won’t be the same though. Would much rather be at home with Shala doing something together. That is called love. Capital L-o-v-e. 
Are You Ready For The Holidays? Oh, You Know We Are. **crooked smile**
Isn’t it crazy we are almost in the thick of the holidays again. Freakin’ Christmas trees. Turkeys. **shakes head** I can’t believe it. I think I am going to boycott them this year. All of them. Presents, trees, lights, turkeys, stuffing… all of it. Unless its made of chocolate or sings songs… then I might not boycott it. The holidays makes families crazy. Ours isn’t any different. I’m not looking forward to it. Not after the two months that will precede it. No thanks. We might be the crazy ones this time though… “what do you want for christmas?” FOR YOU TO LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE SANTA! And screw your lil elves too. I never liked their pointy ears anyway. It is just weird.
I read something the other day that said something to the effect that you should apologize that you haven’t blogged in a while. Your readers understand and just move on to other blogs during your hiatus. Good. I hope that is the case. I promise we still garden, we still BBQ (sometimes) and we do miss you crazy people that read us from time to time. We will be back, just think of the fodder we will have with the new house and doing it all again from scratch. Think of all the things you will learn at our expense (literally $$). Think of all the crap we will fix, document and inspire you to do the same. Or inspire you to do the exact opposite. Think of all the awesome pics we will take on our cruise. The pics of the new house, the stories of the world coming down… and us crawling out from under the rubble and screaming obscenities the entire time.
Who knew Q4 would be so crazy. Especially after Q1,Q2 & Q3. C’est la vie eh? We would love to hear from you though, let us hear your horror, your good times, your projects, your strageties and travels… we love to hear it all just as much as you love to hear ours.
Posted on September 30th, 2008 by James
I know a few of you were wondering if we were forced out of our house for mere pennies, or did the private Christian school do the right thing.
They did.
It has been super stressfull, too damn busy and overall sucky for the past couple months. But we made it. We got what we needed and we will be moving into our new house in November.
Overall we upgraded. Our new house has 4 bedrooms (we only had 3), 2 bath, 2 car garage (which we didn’t have before), about 400-500 more square foot, 2 living areas (we only had 1 before), a sunroom (we didn’t have one of these) and its on a cul de sac (we were on a very busy street with all the school traffic).
How’s that for an upgrade?!?!
So now we begin the whole packing, inspecting, appraising, financing, moving… all that crap. Yay. My favorite part.
We are getting new carpet put in all the bedrooms and living room of the new house and we are going to redo the living room before doing so. On top of that, we are going to put up a new fence before we move in as well… so we have some work to do, but we are excited to get on with it.
If there is a moral to this story…
If you work hard enough at something, “it all works out“.
Don’t get me started.
Posted on September 25th, 2008 by James
For those that don’t participate in Mama Kat’s Weekly Writing Assignment, it is a great way to hone in on your blogging skills, or writing skills (if your old school)… and at the same time it lets folks into your life one little blog post at a time. It is fun, and if you want to participate, check this link and you will learn what to do and how to do it.
This week I (James) chose to write a letter to someone I miss. I chose my Brother. Sorry for the somber tone, but it comes from the heart and it really is a great way to get some things out that otherwise… sit and ferment. So here ya go.
Dear Kenny,
Hey bro. Sorry it has been so long since the last time I wrote. Guess I have been busy. Busy is not even the word lately. Busy in both ways… good & bad. It is a long story. I’m sure you have been watching and hey… if you have, and you have any pull up there, see if God could shine a little light down on a brother. I’m not sure what kinda processes they have up there, dunno what kinda red tape you have to go through to get some love… but see what you can do. We would appreciate it.
Work is a bitch too. I mean its going good, but just stressful at times. I know you always told me to stick to my brain instead of my hands when it came to work… but sometimes I think you had it better. I know your worked your ass off, but there is just something about going home at a certain time and your job being done until the next. I bet you never had a fender call and say…
“Hey, I need a second top coat… could you come up and get me painted?”
Nope. Doubt you did. In fact I bet that feeling of completion is hard to compete with. I wish sometimes I could leave my work at work. Guess sitting in the a/c all day, staring at a computer has its perks… but they are hard to see at times. Oh well. I’m still blowing & going though… using my brain. You better be right.
I miss you man. Sometimes when I’m working outside, I think of all those times we used to work with Grandpa when we were younger. Me, you… Staven. Scooter. All of us. Grandpa just working like he was 20 years old (even though he was in his 60’s) and us trying to keep up. The work ethic he instilled in us is priceless. But that feeling of working beside your brother is just as priceless as well. What was funny though is back then I couldn’t stand you. As I’m sure you couldn’t stand me either… and now I would give anything to work beside you again.
I seem to regret more and more about our relationship as I get older and realize that I can’t do anything to fix it. I mean I can’t count how many times you called and I wasn’t home or I was and just didn’t want to talk (because I didn’t have a job and didn’t want to explain to you why). I was embarrased to talk to you about that stuff because you never were the one without a job. You were a working fool. Fool is a bad word… “man” is better. So you would call and I would hear you talk on the machine… I wish I could listen to those messages again.
Then it came to the point where you wouldn’t even leave messages… because what was the point. I mean I never seemed to “find the time”… because I was “soooo busy”… doing jack-shit. I hate myself for that. I was an idiot. Still am at times.
But that isn’t anything new. I have regretting that for the past 3 years at least. Actually the minute I knew you were sick I began to regret it. I thought… WTF WAS I THINKING. What kind of brother was I? What kind of brother am I? Shitty… thats what. I wish I could tell you I was sorry and you could just grab me and pull me in for a side hug and tell me to shut up and quit being a pussy. Because that is how we handled things.
I miss having those slap boxing fights out in the dusty drive way each time I came down to see yall. I remember when I realized I wasn’t as big of a wuss as I thought and finally decided if we were going to go at it… I might as well try a little. Remember before then I would just ball up turtle-style and try not to get roughed up. Finally you would call me something similar to a vagina and then it would be over. But when I finally realized I was grown and that you didn’t hold all the power anymore, we had fun times from that point forward. I would give anything to beat your ass down again. Or at least try. I would probably let you win… since I would feel sorry for your pitiful old ass. haha j/k
Sister says hi. She misses you too. I remember the first time you called after Shala & I got married and you said…
“Lemme talk to Sister.”
I was kinda confused, but then realized that well… technically she was your sister now and how she thought it was cool that you wanted to talk to her. “I love Kenny.” She was happy about that. Sometimes I write something on the blog, or we hear a song or watch a movie and we are reminded of your passing and she will break down. I know a lot of it has to do with the fact that she knows how much it hurts me and how she would feel if she lost a sibling… but a lot of it also has to do with the fact that she straight misses you. We always had fun coming down and seeing you, it was never a hassle… I mean most of the time it was BBQ & beers… which now is pretty much a staple at our house.
Oh yeah… our house.
We won’t go into that, it is sort of a sore subject at the moment… but I wish you could have come and seen it. That is something we didn’t get to share with you. In fact we would have loved to have your help when we moved from that damn apartment to the new house. Shala’s Dad still talks about how hard of a worker you were that day we moved into that damn apartment. He says you were “something else”. And I agree. We laugh at the circus of putting the couches in through the balcony… remember that? Son of a… You should have seen the backwards circus (sucric?) of taking them out from the balcony. Equally as funny. Except you weren’t there.
When we got everything unloaded that day moving into the new house, we didn’t really unpack much. We ended up throwing some burgers on the grill and putting some beers down with some good friends. It was very cool. The whole time, even though we were amongst some of our greatest friends… I couldn’t help but miss you the most right then. Beer in hand, Opa’s on the grill… you would have pulled me in for a side-hug again…
“Man, this is what it is all about. Now you just need to have a boy to keep the family name alive.”
You always gave me a hard time about that, since you had two girls and no boys. You put that on me like a bad suit and made me wear it for everyone to see. Don’t worry… Anna still keeps it alive. She reminds us when she sees us that we are in debt to the family to have a boy. YES WE KNOW. haha A cross (pun intended) we happily will carry. Kids aren’t a part of life yet… but they are coming, promise. And if there is anything I can do to ensure it is a boy… I will do so. I think if I stand on my head… eat pears… and we do it on a Tuesday… it might just do it. Or something.
I better wrap this thing up… you know me, once you get me going - I could go on for days. I don’t have days, in fact I’m pressed for minutes these days. Life is too damn fast. I know, I know… tell you about it. I am trying to slow down… promise ya.
Tell Dad I said hi, and that I miss him too. I will pass your love to everyone else. Don’t get into too much trouble up there… I don’t know the rules or if they can pull your card for anything. Hell, if they could you probably would have found out by now. If so, hope I don’t get a return to sender on this. haha Take it easy bro.
Love ya - like a brother… no homo,
JJ
Posted on September 24th, 2008 by James
The title is inspired by a positive attitude.
Today is the day that “the people” come and look at our house to see if the price we want is suitable. Considering they are going to promptly come and bulldoze the whole she-bang… it all seems like a funny situation.
We have been stressing about it, dunno why really - but you know how it goes. We have been cleaning like no other, stashing the meth lab starter kit, burying all the stale bodies and dressing up the purchased child labor. You know, the usual.
Just kidding, there are no bodies or meth labs.
Those are loooooooooong gone.
We have been on a crazy schedule though, running around cleaning, mowing, moping, sweeping (in the opposite order of course), polishing and what not. Not the fun we are accustomed to, needless to say.
However this morning, after all the craziness was over…
We both looked around and agreed it was awesome. We would buy it. We would tear it down. For sure. Sign us up. Bring in the bobcat. Let’s get this thing started.
I kid, I kid. But really it is kinda sad to clean something so thoroughly and see it in all its glory… then realize your doing it in order for its death. It is sorta like cleaning up the body for an open casket. Today is the viewing… buy your tickets early, they go up if you buy them at the door.
Winning is the only option… today we win. Who’s with us!?!?!
